Family and Home Archives

How This Dad Made Sure His 12 Kids Paid for College Themselves

Francis L. Thompson and his wife managed to raise 12 children who not only all have college degrees, but who paid for their education themselves.

Most importantly, their children, ages 22 to 37, all share their parents’ values: self-respect, gratitude and a desire to give back to society.

In a recent article, Thompson shares how he and his wife accomplished such a feat. He provides a lengthy list of things he considers they “did right.” You might not agree with every single item he includes, but you’ll probably think his advice is good food for thought.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, finances, kids, parenting February 12, 2014 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

VIDEO: Brother and Sister’s Amazing Bond Captures the Heart of Family

You may have already “met” Trenton Cochran and his sister Lindsay via an interview that’s gone viral. Or perhaps you saw them on Fox & Friends last week.

Ten-year-old Lindsay has a rare condition, spinal muscular atrophy, which confines her to a wheelchair and limits her physically. But she doesn’t face her challenges alone. Big brother Trenton is always by her side, helping take care of her, standing up for her and being her best friend.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, kids, news, parenting February 10, 2014 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Is It Wrong to Meet with Your Ideological Opposite?

I once met with a well-known homosexual activist. I remember feeling the Lord’s prompting to reach out to this man – and pushing off that meeting for months. (I recently shared more about this meeting with the Catalyst conference via video.)

You might have also heard in the news awhile back that I’ve met with abortion rights groups in hopes that we might find a way to realize their stated goal of making abortion more rare.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: church, faith, relationships February 5, 2014 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

What to Do If Your 20-Something is Living in Your Basement

It’s a tough economy. Jobs are scarce. Many of today’s college grads are entering the “real world” with considerable student loan debt.

For many parents, what this means is that their adult children will “boomerang” or move back home with them after college.

Can you relate? I’d love to hear from you – both parents and the returning young adults.

Millennials face other consequences from their financial pressures, though. The harsh reality for many 20-somethings is that they believe they can’t afford to get married, because that would mean combining individuals who have a five- or six-digital student loan debt total between the two.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, finances, kids, parenting February 4, 2014 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

How Your Teen is Like Spanish-Speaking Buzz Lightyear

If you’re a parent, you’re probably familiar with the Toy Story movie franchise. The films highlight the secret lives of toys. Here’s a scene from Toy Story 3 featuring a Spanish-speaking Buzz Lightyear:

So Rex presses one simple button, and an entire personality is reset.

That’s how it sometimes feels to be a parent of a teenager. All of a sudden, you’re seeing a different side to your child’s personality that just wasn’t there before. And I should know – we now have a teenager in the Daly household.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, kids, parenting, pop culture January 30, 2014 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Does the Size of Your Family Matter?

I’ve previously blogged about intentional childless ness, so today I want to address the logical “next step” to that topic: family size. If children are a blessing – which they are – can a couple have too many kids? Is there an ideal family size?

In his book, “What to Expect When No One’s Expecting,” Jonathan V. Last cites how a growing number of Americans want less. They want fewer kids and smaller families.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, marriage, parenting January 29, 2014 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Glorifying God Through the Obstacles in Marriage

All marriages will face challenges. It’s not a matter of if you and your spouse will encounter hardship – it’s a matter of what type of situation you’ll have to walk through.

Mike and Reneé Bondi entered their marriage knowing exactly what type of obstacles they would encounter. Reneé had suffered a horrible accident that left her a quadriplegic while she was still engaged to Mike. Despite the fact Reneé tried to “release” Mike from his commitment to her, he knew in his heart that she was the woman God had set apart for him.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, husband, marriage, wife January 23, 2014 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Returning to a Culture of Life

It’s hard to think back to a time when the majority of the culture was as acutely aware of life inside the womb as it is now.

Think about it this way: thanks to ultrasound technology, it’s commonplace to see pictures of preborn babies. They’re found on Facebook. They’re displayed in picture frames that say “coming soon.” Expectant parents even share videos of their 4D ultrasounds so family members can see their preborn son or daughter move around in the womb.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, kids, policy, pro-life January 21, 2014 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Marriage Still the Best Hope to Combat Poverty

Focus on the Family has long promoted an important truth: men, women and children do better when they are part of a family knit together by marriage. There’s a mountain of research that helps prove this claim, showing that marriage does more than any other single factor to protect families against poverty and financial hardships.

Well, new research is seemingly debunking this assertion. Last week, NBC News ran a provocatively-titled article, “Marriage may not be the silver bullet for poverty, study says.” It cites a study suggesting marriage is an “ineffective weapon in the War on Poverty.” Meanwhile, the article also quotes the professor who wrote the paper, Dr.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, marriage, news, parenting January 20, 2014 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Focus Celebrates More Than 230,000 Babies Saved from Abortion

Every January Focus on the Family commemorates the sanctity of human life in all of its beautiful forms.

It was, of course, in January 1973 that the U.S. Supreme Court rendered its tragic decision on Roe v Wade, which legalized abortion in all fifty states. Since then about 51 million babies have been lost to abortion.

In the midst of this somber reality is a ray of hope – more than ever before we’re seeing Americans identify as “pro-life.” As technology helps to reveal the reality and beauty of life in the womb, a greater number of women facing unplanned pregnancies are choosing to parent their babies, or to place them for adoption.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting, policy, pro-life January 14, 2014 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura